Okay, so my computer has 128 MB of RAM, and I want to add to that. Specifically, I want to add a 512 MB stick in the other slot. But all the cheap 512 RAM sticks I see on the web tell me that my motherboard must be able to handle 1.5 GB of RAM in order to take them, and my motherboard manual says it can only take up to 1.0. What happens if I put the 512 in there anyway – I’d still only have 640 total.
Are there any 512 sticks made that I could use, or am I SOL and 256 is the best I can do?
What is the cheapest/best way for me to boost my RAM?
What I have now is SDRAM, PC 133 if that makes a difference.
There are certain chipsets which do not support the 512MB DIMMS. Does your manual suggest what configurations of DIMMS it will support? Some of them have a table.
Go to www.crucial.com. Put in you computer/motherboard make&model. It will tell you what kind of memory it can handle. You don’t have to buy the memory from crucial, but if they don’t bring up any 512MB memory sticks, it’s likely to be because the system doesn’t support them.
Take the maximum amount of memory that your motherboard can handle, 1 Gig (1024 MB), and divide it by the number of memory slots actually on the motherboard. That is the maximum amount of memory that each slot can take.
If you had four slots, then the maximum amount of memory per slot would be 256 MB. That’s the way the engineers find out the maximum that the motherboad can take. They simply reverse the math that we just did.
But in addition to that, consult your motherboard manual for any special memory combinations that you have to adhere to.
If you put a 512 in a slot that can take a maximum of 256, your computer will not boot, and you will hear a series of beeps.
You have four DIMMs, but two are DDR and two are SDRAM. This is an unusual configuration, but let’s deal with it.
The maximum is 1 GB.
I have never seen where both types of memory can be used at the same time. That is kind of confirmed where they say “either/or” on the memory types. So your motherboard can use one, but not the other. No matter what, you will always have two empty DIMMs.
Since the maximum is 1 GB, then each DIMM can handle a maximum of 512 MB, of either type of RAM.
Don’t use the icentral link to determine your memory. You don’t have a motherboard that can handle high density RAM. That is a different thing altogether.
Go to Bestbuy and get a stick of 512 MB of SDRAM for 80 bucks. That is your best bet.
What you need is either 512 of DDR 266 memory, or 512 of 133 MHz SDRAM. The DDR is, actually, probably cheaper as well as being twice as fast. Note that if you currently have SDRAM on board, then you won’t be able to use your current stick alongside a stick of DDR.
Despite what Mr. Faucet has to say, I’d say your best bet is getting a stick of 512 DDR 266 for about $70 ($80 with a $30 mail-in rebate from the tigerdirect link), even if it means throwing out your curent stick of ram. The performance jump from 512 to 640 MB is nothing compared to the performance jump from SDRAM to DDR.
I would advise against getting DDR266 at this juncture. 512MB of high performance DDR400 (PC3200), which is completely backwards compatible with DDR200/266/333, goes for about $100. 512MB of cheaper stuff can be had for between $75 to $80. In particular, I suggest Geil Golden Dragon DDR400.
As for OS compatibility, Windows 95/98/ME supports up to 512MB. Trying to use more will result in system errors and crashes, as Windows memory management completely breaks down. Windows 2000 and XP should support 4GB to 32GB of RAM, depending on the version.
I have the exact same motherboard furt, and according to my manual it will accept 512MB sticks of either DDR or SDRAM. I’ve never personally tested this, but it should work. Note that you can’t use both SDRAM and DDR at the same time.
I highly recommend DDR. It’s probably more expensive, but twice as fast!
Yes, 512 is still worth it since you are running WinXP. WinXP is a memory hog (although it handles memory well) and you will probably find it’s happier having a lot of extra memory for the background stuff while you’re running Madden.
What do you need a lot of memory for? 384MB should be more than enough for most uses. I’m a power user, and I only upgraded to 512MB because Battlefield: 1942 required it. Everything else was more than happy with 256MB.
furt, if you are gaming on xp i would suggest getting the 512 mb ddr. You will have no problems with 384 mb but, in gaming, the more ram you throw in there the better.
I found bf1942 to be significantly smoother after i went from 512 mb to 1 gig of ddr ram…plus, i am usually one of the first after a map change since the maps load so fast with that much ram. I personally consider 512 mb on xp to be the minimum acceptable amount. But that’s me…i play a ton of games and i’m in a bf1942: Desert Combat clan.
Aleron, why pay more for something his motherboard doesn’t support? You can say “future upgrades” if you want, but it’s unlikely that DDR400 is going to get more expensive in the future. Heck, we could be onto a whole new memory architecture by the time he wants to upgrade again.
Now, basically, you wanna look for the DDR memory of at least DDR266. If it happens to be faster and cheaper, ok, but you don’t need to pay more for the faster stuff.
LordVor: Because, for almost no price premium, you get better RAM that supports newer processors. We are going to be using DDR400 for the forseeable future, so why invest in RAM you KNOW you’ll have to throw away with the next upgrade?
The fact of the matter is, at this point, all standard RAM speeds cost about the same. Only DDR400 is currently being manufacturered, and it’s dropped down to commodity price. The price difference between DDR266 and DDR400 is about $5 per 512MB stick, which is more than worth it.
Because there’s already PC3400, PC3700, and PC4000 memory? “Next upgrade” has to be MB+CPU, or the increase in memory speed is still useless, and a CPU upgrade will likely be handicapped by PC3200 memory, to the point where you end up wanting faster memory for the next incarnation anyway.
Making any extra money spent on memory speed you can’t use today wasted.
Granted, we don’t know when this “next upgrade” is going to be, but if he’s sweating $70 for memory, I don’t think he’s going to be in the market for cpu+MB in the near future.